Law changes are not going to stop people smoking

In a few weeks’ time there will be big changes in the law that will affect the smokers of this country.

Designs on all packets of cigarettes and tobacco will look the same, flavoured tobacco will be made illegal and menthols are being phased out.

Shops will also have to stop selling small pouches of rolling baccy and 10 packs of fags in a bid to discourage people.

I don’t think that’s going to work though. People will just buy the larger packets and tell themselves they’ll save the remaining 10 until tomorrow.

But if you’re addicted to something and it’s left lying around, you’re not going to leave it alone, are you?

So people will actually end up smoking more!

Meanwhile, kids will still pool all their coins and stand outside the local One Stop asking people to ‘buy us some fags, mate’. They’ll end up smoking more too!

I don’t smoke, so to be honest I couldn’t care less about price rises and any new laws that may affect smokers.

If someone wants to buy something that may ultimately speed up their arrival at the crematorium, then that’s up to them.

But I do find it strange that the same rules never apply to alcohol, for example.

Imagine if the government brought in minimum purchase amounts on beers, wines and spirits.

You’d see tramps rolling around the gutter with five-litre demijohns of Frosty Jacks!

It’s another one of those ideas that seem good in theory, but will no doubt affect the poorer members of society who will care about the extra few quid they are going to have to spend on their cancer sticks.

This will feed into the black market and more people are going to be buying the arsenic and lead-flavoured baccy hawked around the pubs on the weekend.

It’s strange how packets of fags have pictures of diseased lungs, cancerous tongues and mouldy feet with warnings that smoking kills.

Yet if the government was really that worried about the effects of smoking, they’d make it illegal.

I can’t think why they wouldn’t...£££.

HE SAID HE’D TAKE SOME OF MY WINE TO USE AS PAINT STRIPPER

I’m sure that landlords get offered all sorts of things as payment for rent.

Last week a landlord was found guilty in court after accepting £40,000 worth of stolen whisky in lieu of what he was owed.

The 57 bottles of rare malt whisky were hidden in his loft.

I was clearing some bits out of my garage the other day and discovered some bottles of home-brewed wine that I made a few years back.

With my rent due soon, I offered some of the rare vintage Smith red to my landlord for a reduction in the payment.

Unfortunately he never took me up on the offer.

But he did agree to take away a couple of bottles for his wife to use as paint stirpper for her latest upcycling project!

IT SEEMS TOO EASY FOR SOME TO FORGET WHAT THESE MEN DID

So former IRA brigade commander Martin McGuinness has died.

He was one of the top men in an organisation responsible for murdering many innocent people.

Yet if you were to listen to some of the gushing remarks from politicians after his death, you’d think that the man who became deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland was some kind of hero.